Podcast
The Rich Outdoors
Hosted by Cody Rich · EN
Conversations for people who want to build a bigger life. Hosted by hunter, entrepreneur, and Bridger Watch founder Cody Rich, this podcast explores hunting, adventure, hard things, personal growth, and the pursuit of a life well lived. From epic hunting stories and wilderness adventures to building businesses, raising families, improving health, and chasing meaningful work, these conversations are about becoming more capable in every part of life. You’ll hear from hunters, athletes, founders, creators, guides, and people who have chosen a different path — one built around freedom, adventure, discipline, and purpose. New episodes weekly.
12episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Choose Your Hard: Chris Piper on Business, Elk, and Building the Forever Ranch
3w ago01:11:05Tap to summarizeI’ve known Chris Piper for a couple years now, ever since a mutual friend put us in touch and he told me he wanted to get into the hunting industry. I didn’t think that was a terrible idea — okay, I kind of did — but this guy’s skill set is legit. He’s built marketing and ops departments for a $5 billion car company, ran point for Cody Sanchez at Contrarian Thinking, and now he’s out on his own helping companies bridge the gap between marketing and operations. But this episode isn’t really about business tactics. It’s about the whole arc — losing the fighter pilot dream to asthma, racing Formula cars and street racing through his teens, becoming a dad at 21 with zero parenting rights and fighting his way back from that, and grinding through corporate America to build the life he actually wanted. We get into whether buying “boring” small businesses is a real path to freedom or just a fancy way to buy yourself a job, why being a generalist beats being a specialist in the AI era, and what losing a neighbor to a sudden brain tumor taught him about “someday.” We also talk hunting — his first elk hunt, what he picked up from a week at Cliff Gray’s Elk Camp, and why patience in the mountains is the same skill as patience in business. If you’ve ever felt like you’re behind, or like you’re waiting for “someday” to start living the life you actually want, this one’s for you. Sponsors Bridger Watch This is a project I’ve personally been working on for a long time — a smartwatch actually built for hunting. Everyone told us we couldn’t take on Garmin, but I think we’ve built something amazing. The standout feature is the mapping. On top of all your normal smartwatch stuff — health tracking, fitness tracking, texts — Bridger Watch has the best mapping capability of any wearable out there. You can save offline maps, send them straight to your watch, and pan around right on your wrist with a screen that’s genuinely impressive. And because we integrate directly with onX, you can share your waypoints, tracks, and markups right to the watch — so if your phone dies or you lose it in the field, you’ve always got a backup. We’re not trying to replace your phone maps. We’re trying to give you redundancy in a wearable you’ll actually use every single day of the year. bridgerwatch.com Maven Optics (Note: the ad copy for Maven wasn’t in the transcript I was given, so I’ve written this based on Maven’s general brand positioning — swap in the actual episode read if you have it.) Maven builds premium hunting optics — riflescopes, binoculars, and spotting scopes — and sells direct to the hunter instead of marking everything up through a retail middleman. That means you’re getting glass that goes toe-to-toe with the big legacy brands, at a price that actually makes sense, backed by their unconditional lifetime warranty. mavenbuilt.com Use code TRO at checkout for a discount. Chapters 00:00 – Cold open: onX Hunt’s new Go Track “share your location” feature 01:00 – Sponsor: Bridger Watch 03:00 – Welcome Chris Piper, how they met and reconnected 05:15 – Chris’s original dream: Air Force pilot, shut down by asthma 08:30 – The street racing years — the helicopter chase story 12:30 – Becoming a dad at 21 and the custody fight that followed 17:00 – Choosing responsibility, insurance sales, and the climb into corporate America 21:00 – Director of Market Strategy at DriveTime and the biggest lesson from his 20s 25:30 – Chasing money vs. mastering a skill — building a “Swiss Army knife” career 30:00 – Generalist vs. specialist in the age of AI — why curiosity is the real edge 35:30 – Leaving corporate for Tucker Max, moving the family, and near-jail custody stress 41:00 – Joining Cody Sanchez at Contrarian Thinking, buying “boring” businesses 47:00 – Is buying small businesses real, or are you just buying yourself a job? 53:00 – The most successful (and surprising) small businesses to own 57:30 – Specialists vs. operators — why the best welder shouldn’t run the company 1:00:30 – What Chris wants his 40s, 50s, and 60s to look like — the forever ranch and an elk tag in every western state 1:04:00 – Losing a neighbor to a sudden brain tumor and why “someday” isn’t guaranteed 1:07:00 – Where the audacity to go get what you want actually comes from 1:08:30 – Wrap-up: Cliff Gray’s Elk Camp, patience in hunting vs. business, and where to find Chris Three Key Takeaways Disappointment comes from unmet expectations, not from reality itself. Chris talks about resetting his expectations daily instead of holding himself (or his team, or his family) to a fixed standard 24/7. Some weeks call for going all-in on the business; other weeks, the win is just showing up as a present dad. Adjusting the bar to the moment isn’t lowering it — it’s being honest about what’s actually needed right now. In the AI era, being a curious generalist beats being a narrow specialist. Chris didn’t get ahead by mastering one skill — he st...
Transcribe →Doug Champion: Rodeo, Presence, and Finding Your Next Level
4w ago00:57:32Tap to summarizeMan, this one’s special. Doug Champion is back on the show for round two, and honestly, this is exactly why I love doing this podcast — you meet someone, you have a great conversation, and a year later you’re picking right back up like no time passed at all. If you don’t know Doug, he’s the guy behind Champion Living, building the first real athlete development system for rodeo — fitness, nutrition, mental training, the whole thing — because for way too long rodeo has been behind the curve compared to sports like motocross when it comes to taking care of its athletes. His brother Richie Champion is a legend in bareback riding, nine-time NFR qualifier, and Doug just watched him ride his last horses ever at the Calgary Stampede. That story alone is worth the price of admission — chills, dude. But this conversation goes so much deeper than rodeo. We get into the real stuff: what it actually costs to build a business that’s bigger than you, the guilt of missing time with your kids while you’re out chasing elk or building something for your family’s future, losing a dog that raised you into adulthood, and the discipline it takes to stop lying to yourself about why things keep going sideways. We also get into hunting — my brutal 2024 season, tracking a bull nine miles after he got up and walked off, Doug’s buddy Travis and the giant mule deer that got away (and then didn’t), and why I’m changing my whole approach this year to actually see more animals instead of just walking more miles. This is one of those episodes where we start talking about rodeo and end up talking about life. Grab your coffee, settle in, and let’s get after it. Sponsors onX Hunt Big shoutout to onX for this episode. They just rolled out a new Share feature inside the Go Track section of the app — think old-school Garmin Rino “see your buddy on the map” tech, but done right for 2024. You and your hunting partner can now share your live location with each other right in the app (works when you’re in service, so keep that in mind). It’s a small feature but a genuinely useful one if you hunt with a crew. Check it out at onxmaps.com and use code TRO for a discount on your membership. Bridger Watch This one’s personal — I’ve been building this thing for a long time and I’m proud of what it’s become. Bridger Watch is a smartwatch built specifically for hunters. It does everything a normal smartwatch does (health tracking, fitness, texts) but the mapping is where it separates itself — best-in-class offline maps on a wearable, and a direct integration with onX so you can send waypoints, tracks, and markups straight to your watch. Park your truck, drop a waypoint in onX, send it to your wrist — now if your phone dies or you lose it, you’ve still got your way back. It’s not trying to replace your phone maps, it’s the backup you didn’t know you needed. Go check it out at bridgerwatch.com Timestamps 00:00 – Sponsors: onX Hunt’s new Share feature & Bridger Watch’s smartwatch/onX integration 03:30 – Welcome back, Doug! Catching up a year later 05:00 – Doug’s all-in on hunting now — the struggle of finding time to scout with a growing business 10:00 – Burnout, growing a “lifestyle business” into a real company, and redefining what leveling up looks like 14:00 – The guilt of stepping away from the kids, and why the newborn years might actually be easier 18:00 – The 40th birthday Baldy lap story — missing fireworks, and what your kids actually see when you chase big goals 21:00 – What’s driving the business boom — investing in mentorship and the Alex Hormozi workshop 24:00 – Richie Champion’s final rodeo at the Calgary Stampede — the 90-point ride, the old horse, and an ending you couldn’t script 30:00 – Losing a 16-year-old dog, leaning into faith, and the journaling/affirmation practice that changed everything 36:00 – Business wins piling up — the Hooey collab, PBR partnership talks, and the new Montana State rodeo development program 39:00 – Why rodeo culture is behind other sports on fitness (and the motocross parallel) 44:00 – What actually separates great athletes at 22 — fearlessness, trainability, and coming to terms with risk 47:00 – Doug’s comeback from a broken back — seven years off, CrossFit, and the best ride of his life 50:00 – Cody’s rough 2024 season — a release malfunction, and tracking a bull nine miles after a bad shot 53:00 – 2024 plans: Utah spike hunt, general tags, Travis’s giant mule deer story, and using LandTrust to find new ground 56:00 – Closing thoughts on staying present, choosing positivity, and where to find the Champion Living x Hooey collab Three Key Takeaways Discipline beats intensity, every time. Both Doug and Cody hammer the same point from two totally different worlds (rodeo and elk hunting): the guys who succeed aren’t the ones grinding 80 hours a week or hiking 20 miles a day — they’re the ones being methodical, controlling what they can control, and getting a little better every single day. Effort without direction just burns you out. <li class="font-claude-resp...
Transcribe →Quiet, Light, Controllable: Inside Tenet’s No-Compromise Suppressor
Jul 601:22:02Tap to summarizeDude, this episode hit different. I sat down with Jacob Albaugh Tenet, founder of Tenet Products, and what started as a guy from Ohio racing four-wheelers turned into one of the wildest entrepreneurial grinds I’ve heard on this podcast — and that’s saying something. Jacob was a national champion ATV racer before he ever picked up a rifle. Then he had a kid, watched his buddy crash at 45 mph, and walked away from racing cold. He poured that same obsessive, pro-level mentality into western hunting — and that’s where this story really takes off. After blowing out his eardrums on a mule deer at 32 yards, losing an animal off a cliff because he couldn’t spot his own shot, and surviving a blizzard SOS situation in Idaho that he says changed his life, Jacob became convinced there had to be a better way to hunt suppressed without sacrificing accuracy. So he built one. In his garage. With a grinder and a welder. Five years, 87 iterations, seven pending patents, and a lot of 20-hour days later, Tenet Products exists — suppressors that combine brake-level recoil control with real suppression, at weights (5.1–5.9 ounces) that sound made up until you see the data. We talk about the midnight idea that led to the patented Horizon Brake System, why he thinks outsiders solve problems industry veterans can’t, the torture testing that’s put over 1,400 rounds through a single can, and what happened when Tenet showed up to Joseph Ewing’s massive 145-suppressor shootout in Montana against every serious competitor in the space. This one’s part origin story, part engineering deep-dive, part conversation about grit, faith, and what it actually takes to build something from scratch when nobody in the industry believes you. If you’ve ever thought about running suppressed in the backcountry, or you just love a good underdog build story — this is a must listen. This Episode Is Brought to You By: onX Hunt Remember the old Garmin Rino days when you could see your buddy’s location on the map out in the field? onX just brought that idea into the modern era — and made it way better. Head into the onX Hunt app, go to the new GoTrack section, and hit “Share Your Location” to see exactly where your hunting partner is on the map in real time. It only works while you’re in service, but for the hunts where it applies, it’s a total game-changer for staying coordinated with your crew. Check it out and get outfitted for your next hunt at onxmaps.com Use code TRO for a discount at checkout Bridger Watch Full disclosure — this one’s mine. Bridger Watch is a full-feature smartwatch built by hunters, for hunters, made for the entire hunting lifestyle, not just the hunt itself. No compromise, no fluff. It handles your training, your mapping (the big one), your text messages, and it’s built with the kind of battery life that actually survives the backcountry — because we know battery life matters when you’re days deep with no outlet in sight. Learn more and grab yours at bridgerwatch.com Episode Chapters Time Segment 00:00 Cold open — onX Hunt’s new GoTrack share feature 01:47 Bridger Watch — full-feature smartwatch for hunters 03:15 Welcome Jacob Albaugh — intro to Tenet Products 05:30 From national champion ATV racer to walking away cold 09:40 Discovering western hunting in college 13:20 The frustration that started it all: muzzle devices & long-range shots 17:00 The mule deer that blew out his ears — the tinnitus wake-up call 20:15 Going suppressed… and losing accuracy in the process 24:00 The Idaho blizzard, the lost animal, and finding faith 28:30 Building the first prototype — “redneck engineering” with a welder 33:00 Pitching suppressor companies the idea for free — and getting rejected 37:15 The midnight idea: birth of the Horizon Brake System 42:00 Why an outsider could solve what 100 years of experts couldn’t 47:00 87 iterations — the last 10% that takes 5x the work 52:00 Solving the weight problem with additive manufacturing (5.1–5.9 oz cans) 57:00 Torture testing: 1,400 rounds, melted titanium, and mag dumps into water 1:02:00 Launch pride and building the Tenet team 1:05:30 Inside Joseph Ewing’s 145-suppressor shootout in Montana 1:12:00 The slow-mo footage that shows five years of shot-control focus 1:16:00 Jacob’s 7-300 wildcat build and...
Transcribe →Mules, Mountains & a Collapsed Lung: Justin Helvik on Going All In
Jun 1900:59:02Tap to summarizeThere’s a certain type of person who can’t half-ass anything. The kind of guy who decides to climb the Grand Teton on a whim, rappels off a sheer face having never rappelled before, canyoneers into some of the most remote slot canyons in the American Southwest, and packs mules solo through the dark at midnight to make the opener. Justin Helvik is that guy — and somehow, impossibly, he’s also a 20-year educator who coached high school football and showed up Monday morning with a collapsed lung and six broken ribs, insisting everything was fine. Justin and I go way back. He was with me on one of my early bear hunts. I helped him build the pole barn that would eventually house the mules he didn’t own yet. Life moves fast when you’re the kind of person who’s always got the next adventure already on the calendar. In this episode, Justin breaks down his unconventional path from desk jockey to legitimate mountain mule skinner — and I mean that in the best possible way. We talk about what drove a guy with zero ranch background to go all in on mule packing, the gnarly wreck on a Montana mountain goat hunt that left him with a punctured lung and broken ribs (and how his mule, Bella, somehow knew he was hurt and carried him out of the backcountry gently), and what it actually feels like to go from being intimidated by stock animals to packing 80 miles through the Yellowstone Thoroughfare. But this conversation goes deeper than mules. We get into the philosophy of adventure — what it means to chase that feeling of uncomfortable, why comfort might actually be the most dangerous thing you can do to yourself, and how stacking experiences over a lifetime is the only real way to build confidence that transfers everywhere. Justin talks about identity, ego, legacy, and what Lonesome Dove’s Augustus McCrae got right about living versus dying. He’s also got a Substack — From Desk Jockey to Mule Skinner — that I’d encourage every one of you to go read. He’s a great writer, and the stories are even better on the page. If you’ve ever thought about getting into pack stock, or you’re someone who’s wired to always be pushing the next limit, this one’s for you. Episode Sponsors Bridger Watch This episode is brought to you by Bridger Watch — the smartwatch built specifically for hunters, by a hunter. Cody set out to build something better after getting tired of pulling his phone out 100 times a day just to check his OnX map in the field. The solution? Put the maps on the watch. Bridger Watch is the best smartwatch for hunters, period. If you’re a watch guy and a hunter, this is built for you. Website: https://www.bridgerwatch.com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss Coupon Code: TRO onX Hunt onX Hunt is the gold standard for hunting maps, and they just dropped a feature that’s going to change how you hunt with a buddy. The new Share Location feature inside the Go Track section lets you and your hunting partner see each other’s real-time position right on the map — like a modern-day Garmin Rino, but actually good. Fair warning: this only works in cell service, so it won’t help you in the deep dark. But for those in-service hunts? This is seriously cool tech that a lot of hunters have been asking for for years. Website: https://www.onxmaps.com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss Coupon Code: TRO Timestamp Chapters 0:00 Intro & Sponsor — Bridger Watch 2:15 Sponsor — onX Hunt: New Share Location Feature 4:30 Welcoming Justin Helvik / Catching Up After Years 6:00 Justin’s Background: 20 Years in Education, Small Town Roots 9:30 The Path to Mules — Pack Goats, Failed HOAs & Bighorn Disease Concerns 15:00 Justin’s Adventure DNA: Ultra Races, the Grand Teton & Canyoneering 22:00 Olo Canyon & Going Where Few Have Been 26:30 The Moment That Made Him Go All-In on Mules (Elk Down, No Help) 31:00 First Experiences with Pack Stock — Intimidation, Trust & Mule Personalities 36:00 Horses vs. Mules: Self-Preservation, Bells & the Classic ‘Brakes Are Broken’ 40:30 The Mountain Goat Hunt Wreck — A Collapsed Lung, Six Broken Ribs & Bella 48:00 What the Wreck Taught Him About Ego & Risk 51:00 How Adventure Changes When You Have a Family 53:30 Experience Stacking: The Philosophy of Going All-In Incrementally 56:00 Planning the Lee Metcalf Solo Ride & Why You Need the Next Trip on the Calendar 58:00 Wrap Up — Justin’s Substack: From Desk Jockey to Mule Skinner 3 Key Takeaways 1. Comfort is the real killer — not the mountains. Justin makes the point that denying yourself the adventures you’re wired for is a slow death from the inside. It’s not just a mindset cliché — he’s seen it play out in his own life. When he’s not planning something that makes him a little nervous, he loses motivation everywhere else: at work, at home, as a father. The takeaway for listeners isn’t to go do something reckless. It’s to identify your version of “uncomfortable” and book it. Put it in the calendar. Then don’t cancel. 2. Stack experiences, not just kills. One of the most practical threads in this whole conversation is the concept of experience stacking — the idea that every micro-adventure you complete is compounding interest on your confidence. Justin didn’t go from zero to packing 80 miles through the Yellowstone Thoroughfare overnight. He stacked years of backcountry hunting, mule rides with friends, short overnighters, and hard lessons (including that ER visit) until the big trips felt like a natural next step. If you’re waiting until you’re “ready” to do the hunt of a lifetime, you’ll wait forever. Start smaller, go often, and let the experiences compound. 3. The anticipation is half the experience — book the trip. Justin and Cody dig into something that doesn’t get talked about enough in the hunting world: the happiness that comes from having something on the calendar to look forward to. Science backs this up — humans are wired to find joy in anticipation. The planning, the e-scouting, the gear lists, the late-night what-ifs with your buddy — that’s not just prep, that’s part of the experience itself. Don’t wait for the perfect conditions or the perfect budget. Book it now, figure it out along the way, and let yourself enjoy the countdown.
Transcribe →Identity, Aspiration, and the Anatomy of an Elk Hunt
May 1900:47:42Tap to summarizeMan, I don’t know how else to say this — this one got me. I sat down with Christian Zeron, the guy behind the Theo N. Harris Instagram, and what started as a watch-world conversation turned into one of the most honest, wide-open talks about hunting, identity, manhood, and what it means to find something that actually moves you. That’s the kind of episode this is. Christian grew up in New Jersey selling vintage Rolexes in college and built a marketing company around it. He’s sharp, he’s articulate, and — up until about six months ago — he had zero connection to the hunting world. Then a client invited him on a hunt in Kentucky and, well, here we are. He killed his first turkey this spring, he’s already got hog hunts lined up in Texas and a dove trip to Argentina on the books, and the guy is all in. Completely, unapologetically, joyfully all in. What I love about Christian is that he brings this fresh set of eyes to our world. He’s not pretending to be someone he’s not. He’s a Ralph Lauren, vintage shotgun, lever-action rifle kind of guy who gets genuinely emotional talking about his late grandfather while butchering his first bird. That’s real. That’s the stuff hunting is actually made of, and it’s the stuff that’s really hard to explain to people who haven’t lived it. We go deep on the watch world and what Rolex figured out about aspiration and identity that most brands never do. We talk camo as identity, Sitka vs. First Lite, Yeti coolers, LVMH, Omega, Casio — and somehow it all connects back to hunting, brand building, and what it means to be a man who collects experiences instead of just stuff. Plus, we dig into what I’m trying to build with Bridger Watch and Christian gives me some real, unfiltered marketing advice on how to position it against Garmin and Apple. This is the kind of conversation that makes you want to call your old man, fire up a steak, and go outside. Strap in. Episode Sponsors onX Hunt If you’re serious about hunting out west, onX isn’t optional — it’s foundational. We’re talking land ownership, access layers, terrain intel, and a full suite of tools built for every phase of the hunt: planning, preparation, and execution. The difference onX makes is simple. It’s confidence. Confidence that you’re in the right spot. Confidence that you’re legal. Confidence that you can find your way back to the truck when the day goes long and the country gets weird. Download the onX Hunt app and become an Elite member today. Use code TRO for 20% off your membership. Website: onxmaps.com Bridger Watch I set out to build a better smartwatch for the hunting community — plain and simple. I was frustrated. I kept pulling my phone out 100 times a day to check onX in the field and thought, why can’t we just have the map on our wrist? So we went down the rabbit hole and built what I genuinely believe is the best smartwatch ever made for hunters. If you’re a watch guy and a hunter, this was built for you. Use code TRO at checkout. Website: bridgerwatch.com Timestamp Chapters 0:00 — Intro & Sponsor — onX Hunt 1:45 — Sponsor — Bridger Watch 3:00 — Welcome Christian Zeron | Who Is This Guy? 5:30 — From Jersey to the Deer Woods — How a Watch Guy Found Hunting 9:00 — Building a Marketing Company on the Back of Rolex 12:30 — Christian’s First Turkey: Buck Fever, Clown Makeup, and Grandfather Moments 17:00 — Why Hunting Hits Different — The Emotional Depth Non-Hunters Don’t Understand 20:30 — Serving Elk Steak & The Pride of the Harvest 23:00 — Where Does Christian’s Hunting Journey Go From Here? Argentina, Texas, Bear Hunts 26:30 — Identity in the Hunting World — Camo Brands, Sitka, First Lite & the Yeti Effect 30:00 — Decor, Taxidermy, and Why Rural Men Are More Aesthetic Than Manhattan Bankers 33:30 — The Smartwatch Debate — Where Does a Luxury Watch Guy Land on Wearables? 37:00 — Marketing Advice for Bridger Watch — What Rolex Got Right & What We Should Learn 40:30 — The Watch World Deep Dive — Omega, Tag Heuer, LVMH, Casio & Vintage Markets 44:00 — Lever Guns, Grandfather’s .35 Remington, and Planning Future Hunts 46:00 — Wrap Up — Follow Christian & Final Thoughts 3 Key Takeaways 1. Hunting Connects You to Something Bigger Than the Kill Christian’s story about his late grandfather flooding back while he was butchering his first turkey is one of the most honest descriptions of why hunters hunt that I’ve heard in a long time. The harvest, the meat, the field dressing — it all becomes this vessel for memory and emotion and people you’ve lost. And it’s something you genuinely cannot explain to someone who hasn’t felt it. If you’ve ever felt your dad or your grandfather or someone you loved in a duck blind or a wall tent, you know exactly what Christian is talking about. That feeling doesn’t go away. It doesn’t get old. That’s why we keep going back. 2. Identity Is at the Core of Every Purchase Decision — Hunting Included Christian has been living inside luxury brand psychology for over a decade, and watching him apply that lens to the hunting world is genuinely eye-opening. Whether it’s Sitka gear, a Yeti cooler, or a vintage duck camo jacket — we are all making identity statements with every piece of kit we buy. And what’s fascinating is that hunters, who largely pride themselves on being no-nonsense, practical people, are actually some of the most identity-driven consumers out there. The trophy room, the curated camp setup, the brand of camo you wear — it all means something. Knowing that isn’t a bad thing. It’s human nature. 3. Lead With the Tool — Let the Lifestyle Follow Christian’s marketing insight for Bridger Watch — and honestly for any product in the outdoor space — is worth writing down. The temptation is to lead with the vibe, the lifestyle, the beautiful photos. But for a product that has genuine technical superiority in a specific use case, the smarter play is to lead with education and product proof first, and let the lifestyle layer build behind it. Rolex works because it’s 90% signal and 10% tool. A hunting watch should be the opposite: 90% tool, 10% signal. Prove what the product does for real people doing real things, and the identity follows naturally.
Transcribe →Gray Ghosts and Gridirons: Joe Epple’s Journey from Squamish to Stone Sheep Country
May 1401:01:54Tap to summarizeLook, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it — life got in the way and we missed a week. But we’re back, and this one was worth the wait. Joe Epple is one of those guys who doesn’t fit neatly into a box. Retired professional football player. CFL veteran. Director of Business Development for Wild TV — Canada’s largest hunt and fish TV network. Co-host of The Edge, now in its 17th season. Father of two boys. Columbia blacktail hunter. Stone sheep chaser. A 6’8″ giant of a man who grew up in Squamish, British Columbia, hunting for meat and mushrooming in the rain just to make ends meet — and who somewhere along the way figured out that all those lessons in the wet coastal bush were actually building the foundation for everything that came after. This episode goes deep on what it really means to make the transition from professional athlete to serious hunter, and why the skills that make you elite in sports — goal-setting, resilience, the ability to learn from getting your ass kicked — translate directly to the mountains. Joe talks about growing up in a logging family that hunted out of necessity, not recreation. About being the fat, knock-kneed kid who nobody bet on, who started going to a rusty prison gym at 13 and never looked back. About how hunting blacktails in the miserable, soaking wet coastal bluffs of BC taught him to push through discomfort long before any football field did. We get into the mental game of hunting — specifically what it looks like when you’ve got 14-day fly-in stone sheep hunts on one end of the spectrum and a four-year-old who snaps every branch and asks to go back to the truck every five minutes on the other. How do you stay present? How do you keep the long game in mind when you’re sitting in the gutter on day 10 of a backcountry hunt wondering why you’re not home with your family? Joe’s got a framework for that, and it’s worth hearing. We talk about Kristen’s bear — a giant boar that’ll likely crack the top 15 all-time in the province. About Joe’s most-prized blacktail taken at 12 yards with a bow. About why archery hunting teaches you more about your weaknesses as a hunter than anything else. About what it’s like to hunt stone sheep as a resident in BC for a fraction of what nonresidents pay, and why he still hasn’t punched an archery tag on one. And about the pressure social media puts on new hunters to skip the learning curve entirely and shoot a 200-inch muley on their first trip out. Joe’s a straight shooter (pun intended), genuinely humble, and packed with perspective from both sides of the fence — the elite athlete world and the deep wilderness backcountry. This one’s got range. Turn it up. Episode Sponsors onX Hunt If you’re hunting out west and you’re not running onX, I don’t know what to tell you — it’s not optional at this point, it’s foundational. Land ownership, access layers, terrain intel, route planning — onX does it all. The difference it makes isn’t just convenience. It’s confidence. Confidence that you’re in the right spot. Confidence that you’re legal. Confidence that you can find your way back to the truck when things go sideways. That’s what elite membership gets you. Website: https://www.onxmaps.com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss | Use code: TRO — Save 20% on Elite Membership Bridger Watch This one’s personal — I built Bridger Watch because I was frustrated. I was pulling my phone out 100 times a day just to check my onX, and I thought there had to be a better way. So we went down the rabbit hole and set out to build the best smartwatch for hunters. Maps on your wrist. Built for the field. If you’re a watch guy and a hunter, this is the one you’ve been waiting for. Website: https://www.bridgerwatch.com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss | Use code: TRO — Exclusive discount Timestamp Chapters 0:00 — Intro & Sponsor: onX Hunt 1:30 — Sponsor: Bridger Watch 3:00 — Welcome & catching up — the missed week, quick intros 5:30 — Joe’s roots: growing up in Squamish, BC — logging family, pine mushrooms, coastal blacktails 10:00 — Why Joe pursued athletics instead of the outdoors — the unlikely path to pro football 14:30 — The transition: retiring from pro sports and returning to his outdoor roots 17:00 — Joe’s current life — Director of Business Development at Wild TV, The Edge TV show 20:00 — Raising kids in the outdoors — Walker and Wyatt, making it fun vs. making it serious 26:30 — Cody’s excavator story — how to build positive associations with hunting for young kids 30:00 — Spring bear hunting as a family — dance parties in the mountains and Kristen’s record-book bear 36:00 — The fat kid with a doctor’s note — Joe’s aha moment at 13, the rusty gym, and building self-confidence 42:00 — Growing up with zero sports culture in the house — how a 6’8″ kid ended up at Washington State on a full ride 47:00 — Blacktail hunting as the foundation — why the gray ghost builds hunters who can do anything 51:00 — Joe’s most prized blacktail — the 12-yard bow shot, the branch deflection, and the bluff recovery 54:00 — The mental game of backcountry hunting — learning lessons on every trip, reframing failure 57:30 — Archery vs. rifle — why Joe hunts with a bow even when he doesn’t have to, and what it’s cost him 60:00 — Dream archery hunts, stone sheep with a bow, and where to find The Edge on Wild TV 3 Key Takeaways 1. The Outdoors Builds the Foundation — Not the Other Way Around Joe flipped the typical narrative. Most people assume athletic success leads to outdoor opportunity. For Joe, it was the blacktail hunts in the BC rain — the cold hands, the wet wool pants, the days you saw nothing and came back a prune — that built the grit that eventually carried him to pro football. The outdoors taught him to show up when it sucks, because the lesson is in the discomfort. If you’ve ever wondered why some people can push through brutal hunting conditions while others fold, this conversation gives you the answer: it’s not a hunting skill, it’s a life skill — and you build it long before you ever draw a tag. 2. Play the Long Game With Your Kids Joe and Cody both land in the same place on this one: the goal isn’t to turn your four-year-old into a stealthy, branch-free hunting machine. The goal is to make sure they ask to go again. Unlimited bubbly water. Bring the toy excavator. Let them jump on every frozen puddle. Have a dance party in the mountains before you sneak over the ridge. The association you build right now — “hunting is fun, hunting is where we laugh and eat good snacks and do dumb stuff together” — is worth more than any lesson you could drill into them about staying quiet. The discipline will come. The desire to be out there has to come first. 3. Stop Writing the Story Before It’s Over Two or three days without seeing an animal and most hunters start mentally packing it in. Joe’s been there on 14-day fly-in hunts when the wheels come off and you start questioning every decision. His counterintuitive advice: that’s the point. That’s the adventure. The highs wouldn’t mean what they mean without the lows, and things change in a moment — a bull materializes, a bear steps into the open, the hunt you’ve been grinding finally breaks your way. The story isn’t finished until you’re back in the truck. Stay in the field. Stay sharp. The last two days have a funny way of making up for everything that came before.
Transcribe →Earned Not Given | Connor Koch on Risk Tolerance, Resilience, and the Road to Becoming a Hunter
May 601:24:52Tap to summarizeEP 681: Connor Koch Some episodes just take a minute to get right. We lost the first version of this one — somewhere out there is an SD card with what I’m sure was a hell of a conversation — and you know what? Maybe that was the universe telling us to go again. Because this one hit different. Connor Koch is one of those guys who just operates on a different level. Arc’teryx ambassador for seven years, a man who’s climbed every 14er in the lower 48, skied big lines from Alaska to the High Sierra, and survived an 1,100-foot avalanche ride in ways that defy explanation. He’s the real deal. And now? He’s deep in the hunting rabbit hole, chasing elk solo through grizzly country with a bow he just learned to shoot, logging 70-plus days in the field and coming home with the kind of stories that remind you why we do all of this. We cover a lot of ground in this one. Connor grew up in a tiny San Diego-area town, never saw mountains until his Nissan’s transmission blew up somewhere near a place called Zzyzx on the way to Colorado. He pulled into Vail Pass, jumped out into the June air, and knew — at a cellular level, he says — that he’d found home. That moment launched a decade of elite mountain pursuits that would shape everything that came after. We dig into what it’s like to be a master of one discipline and a beginner in another — and how humbling it is when all your fitness and mental toughness still can’t outwit a wily bull elk. Connor talks about burning a shot opportunity 45 minutes into his first day of bow hunting, running 70+ days solo in the backcountry, getting his camp ripped apart by a known problem grizz the same night he hit a bull high, and why he doesn’t regret any of it. That’s the journey. That’s the process. But it goes way deeper than hunting. Connor opens up about the avalanche that changed him — a full slope that fractured wall to wall, a 1,100-foot washing machine ride, karate-chopping blocks of wind slab before getting obliterated, and emerging from the toe of the debris alive while his partners tunneled out around him. He talks about what that does to your relationship with risk, with the mountains, and with yourself. And then, the hardest decision of his career: turning down a prepackaged invite to ski 8,000-meter peaks in Pakistan, not because he couldn’t do it, but because he finally understood that some pages in your book are okay to leave blank. This is a conversation about reinvention, risk tolerance, the courage to step off the ship when it’s time, and what happens when a man who spent a decade trying to conquer mountains starts learning to be conquered by elk season. Oh, and also — he’s catering his entire wedding with two cow elk and some deer he harvested himself. That’s the kind of dude Connor Koch is. Pull up a chair. This one’s worth every minute. This Episode Is Brought To You By onX Hunt If you’re serious about hunting out west, onX isn’t optional — it’s foundational. Land ownership, access, terrain, and a full suite of tools built for every part of the hunt: the planning, the prep, and the pursuit. The difference is simple. It’s confidence. Confidence that you’re in the right spot, confidence that you’re legal, confidence that you can get back to the truck. That’s what onX gives you. Become an Elite Member today and save 20% with code TRO Visit: www.onxmaps.com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss Bridger Watch This one’s personal — Bridger Watch is Cody Rich’s own company, so yeah, shameless plug incoming. It’s a full-feature smartwatch built by hunters, for the hunting lifestyle. Not just for the hunt, but for everything that surrounds it. Training, mapping, texts, and most importantly: insane battery life. Because battery life matters in the backcountry, full stop. If you’re a watch guy, you already get it. No compromise, no fluff. Just a watch built the way it should’ve been built all along. Visit: www.bridgerwatch.com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss Timestamp Chapters 0:00 — Intro & Sponsor Reads — onX Hunt and Bridger Watch 2:15 — The Lost Episode: A Cop, a Bow, and a County Line 4:00 — Connor Gets His Life Back in Order — Four Months of Spring Skiing 5:00 — The Purcells and the High Sierra — Whitney, Muir, Langley, and a Broken Binding 7:00 — 30,000-Foot View: Arc’teryx, Mountain Pursuits, and a Big Boy Job 9:00 — Climbing Every 14er in the Lower 48 — And Why the Number Is Arbitrary 10:30 — The Origin Story: Erik Weihenmayer, a Blown Transmission, and Finding Home in Colorado 14:00 — Arriving at Vail Pass and Knowing — The Moment That Changed Everything 15:00 — Identity, Selfishness, and the Next Chapter 17:00 — Close Calls: A Rubber Band, a Carabiner, and 200 Feet of Air 19:00 — How Hunting Fills the Gap — And Gives You a More Complete Relationship With the Landscape 22:00 — Vert Records, Big Days, and Getting Old 23:00 — Bringing a Mountain Athlete’s Mindset Into Elk Hunting — Asset or Liability? 26:00 — Going Solo: Three Months, a Bow, and the Backcountry 27:00 — Losing a Bull on September 15th — The Shot, the Rain, and the Grizzly 31:00 — What It Means to Really Want Something and Not Get It 33:00 — Elk Hunting Is Not Meritocracy — And That’s the Point 37:00 — Visualizing Success: How Pre-Prep and Commitment Breed Confidence 38:00 — Confidence in the Face of Doubt — The Dark Arts of High-Exposure Terrain 43:00 — A Duty to the Animal: Why He Never Considered Leaving Camp 45:00 — Hunting as a New Relationship With Death — Feeding His Wedding on Wild Elk 47:00 — Wild Pigs, Weddings, and Getting Attacked at the Worst Possible Moment 49:00 — The Honest Ratio: 70 Days to One Elk 52:00 — If You Only Had 10 Days: The Discipline of Slowing Down 55:00 — Day One, 45 Minutes In, Five-Point at 42 Yards — And Why He Let Him Walk 58:00 — The Advice No One Wants to Hear: Passing Elk Builds the Best Hunters 1:00:00 — Confidence on the Skinny: Why Doubt Has No Place on Exposed Terrain 1:01:00 — The First Avalanche — Skiing Into a Rock Wall and Getting Shepherded Out with One Hand 1:03:00 — The Second Avalanche — An 1,100-Foot Ride, a Bag of Costco Mangoes, and Everyone Lives 1:11:00 — Redefining Risk and Stepping Back From the Edge 1:13:00 — Stealing Fire, Broken Necks, and the Identity Shift Into Bow Hunting 1:16:00 — The Pakistan Trip He Had to Turn Down — And Why He’s Finally Okay With Blank Pages 1:21:00 — What It Means to Move Into the Next Chapter 1:22:30 — Final Ask: Try the Thing That Scares You 1:23:30 — Wrap-Up and Watch Plug 3 Key Takeaways for Listeners 1. Your Greatest Strength in One Arena Can Be Your Biggest Weakness in Another Connor came into elk hunting as an elite mountain athlete — faster, fitter, and more mentally tough than almost anyone in the field. And it nearly worked against him. He was blowing out animals by moving too fast, pushing wind when he shouldn’t have, covering miles that didn’t need covering. The hard-won lesson: hunting rewards patience and animal knowledge above all else. Fitness is a tool, not a cheat code. The most valuable thing a hunter can develop — that gut intuition built from thousands of hours of observation — can’t be outworked or outrun. Know what you bring to the table, and be honest about where the gaps are. 2. The Process Is the Point — Not Just a Cliché Connor spent 70+ days chasing elk solo and came home with hard-earned lessons he wouldn’t trade for anything. He let a five-point walk at 42 yards on day one. He lost a bull to a high hit, a rainstorm, and a problem grizzly. He laid in his shredded tent for days still searching. And he says he doesn’t regret any of it. Not because it sounds good, but because every one of those moments compounded into something real. The hunters who last — and who eventually become consistently successful — are the ones who decide early that the journey is the whole thing, not a detour on the way to the outcome. 3. Knowing When to Step Off the Ship Is Its Own Kind of Courage One of the most powerful moments in this conversation is when Connor talks about turning down an invite to ski 8,000-meter peaks in Pakistan — a trip he’d been dreaming about for years. Not because he was scared. Not because he couldn’t do it. But because he finally understood that some chapters have to close so others can open. He’d survived avalanches, close calls, and years of operating on the edge, and he arrived at a place of genuine peace with leaving certain pages in his book blank. That kind of self-awareness — knowing your season, honoring your current chapter, and resisting the pull of old identity — is rare. And it applies way beyond the mountains.
Transcribe →Trail Cams, Habitat IQ, and Building Tactacam: Conversation with Jeff Peel
Apr 3001:01:38Tap to summarizeEP 680: Jeff Peel | Tactacam What does it actually take to build something from nothing in the hunting industry? Not the polished version — the real one. The trailer-hooked-to-the-back-of-a-Buick-Enclave, sell-your-house, answer-customer-service-calls-at-4AM version. That’s exactly what Jeff of Tactacam pulls back the curtain on in this episode, and man, it’s one of the more refreshing conversations I’ve had on this podcast. Jeff and his wife Tara started Tactacam with almost nothing — a plastic folding table, a dream, and an obsession with taking care of customers in an industry that had largely forgotten how. What started as a point-of-view hunting camera has grown into a 500-employee powerhouse that now dominates the cellular trail camera market. But the part nobody tells you? It took 10 years of brute force to make it look like an overnight success. We dig into the pivot from software to hardware (and why everyone told him not to), the customer-first philosophy that drives a $2 million monthly CS budget, and the launch of Habitat IQ — a genuinely exciting AI-powered platform that takes the collective knowledge of the country’s best whitetail property managers and turns it into actionable data for your specific ground. Think SimCity meets your food plot plan meets 20 years of Jeff Sturgis notebooks. And yeah, we talk about dream hunts. Jeff’s answer? Polar bear with a bow on frozen ocean where you’re the bait. His wife thinks he’s crazy. I get it. Whether you’re a hunter who loves to nerd out on habitat, an entrepreneur trying to figure out how to break into the outdoor industry, or someone who just wants to hear what it actually looks like to bet everything on something you believe in — this one’s for you. Timestamp Chapters 0:00 Intro & Sponsor – OnX Hunt 1:30 Sponsor – Bridger Watch 3:00 Welcome Jeff Peel | Catching Up on Spring Hunting Plans 5:30 The Origin Story – From Cemeteries to Cameras 9:00 Meeting Ben Stern & The Decision to Go All In 12:00 The First Employee, the First Trade Show, the Buick Enclave 15:30 Why They Won – Customer Service as a Competitive Moat 20:00 Advice for Entrepreneurs Looking to Break Into the Outdoor Industry 24:30 The Pivot to Cellular Trail Cameras – Did He See It Coming? 29:00 Hardware is Hard – Why Everyone Said Don’t Do It (And Why He Did Anyway) 33:30 Building the Tech Team & Why the CTO Was the Most Important Hire 37:00 Habitat IQ – The Genesis of an AI-Powered Property Management Tool 43:00 How Cameras & Habitat IQ Work Together to Track Real Deer Movement Data 47:30 How Far Should Technology Go in Hunting? Drawing the Line 52:00 Dream Animals – Polar Bear with a Bow on Frozen Ocean 55:30 Tara’s Retirement Season – 5 Deer, All the Jealousy 57:30 Why Billings, Montana? Elk. That’s Why. 59:30 Where to Follow Tactacam & Wrap Up Episode Sponsors OnX Hunt If you’re serious about hunting out west, OnX isn’t optional — it’s foundational. Land ownership, access, terrain, and a full suite of tools not just for the hunt itself but for the planning, the scouting, and everything that goes into being a backcountry hunter. The difference is simple: it’s confidence. Confidence you’re in the right spot. Confidence you’re legal. Confidence you can get back to the truck. Download the OnX Hunt app and become an elite member today. Use code TRO to save 20% on your membership. Website: onxmaps.com Bridger Watch This one’s personal — Bridger Watch is Cody’s company, and it’s a full-featured smartwatch built by hunters, for hunters. Not a general-use watch with a camo skin slapped on it. A purpose-built tool designed for the hunting lifestyle from the ground up. It trains with you in the off-season, maps your hunts, handles your texts, and delivers the one thing every backcountry hunter knows matters most: insane battery life. No compromise. No fluff. Just the watch the hunting world has been waiting for. Use code TRO at checkout for a discount. Website: bridgerwatch.com 3 Key Takeaways 1. Overnight successes take about 10 years. Jeff was told at a trade show early in his career: “It was an overnight success — in only 10 years.” He sold his house, hooked a trailer to his wife’s Buick, and drove the country hitting every dealer and trade show they could find. If you’re building something and it feels like it should be further along by now, this episode is a reminder that the grind you’re in right now IS the success story being written. 2. Customer service isn’t a cost center — it’s your moat. Tactacam spends $2 million a month on customer service and has a 98% retention rate that rivals Netflix and Spotify. In a world where most companies have made it nearly impossible to talk to a real human, simply picking up the phone and knowing your product is a genuinely unfair competitive advantage. If you own a business — any business — this is worth writing down. 3. Habitat IQ could legitimately change how average hunters manage their ground. The idea behind Habitat IQ — scoring your property, simulating changes like new food plots or bedding improvements, and connecting it all to your real camera data — is genuinely one of the most useful applications of AI for hunters I’ve heard of. This isn’t tech for tech’s sake. It’s taking the collective knowledge of the best whitetail minds in the country and making it accessible for the guy with 80 acres and a weekend to hunt. Keep an eye on this one.
Transcribe →From Mugshots to $300M: The Logan Chierotti Story
Apr 2700:39:42Tap to summarizeEP 679: Logan Chierotti Alright, let’s be real — most supplement companies are just slapping a label on a generic capsule and calling it a day. Logan Chierotti didn’t do that. The guy bootstrapped Physician’s Choice from nothing — literally from the ashes of a failed energy mint company and a basement mugshot removal hustle — into the number one probiotic brand in the world, pushing $300 million in annual sales. No VC money. No trust fund. Just relentless grinding, a willingness to look failure in the eye, and the smarts to go all-in on one thing when everyone else was trying to do everything. But here’s what really got me interested in Logan — it wasn’t just the business stuff. It was watching a guy who built something massive still show up for his kids. Still out there on the mountain with them. Still manufacturing adversity in a life that could easily get too comfortable. That’s the tension I think a lot of us deal with, and Logan’s as honest about the struggle as anyone I’ve talked to. We go deep on the entrepreneur journey — the early days of getting sued and losing everything, the hard pivot that changed everything, what it means to go all-in on one category, and why your work ethic might actually be your biggest enemy. We also get into the dad stuff — raising kids who aren’t entitled when you’ve worked hard to give them more than you had, and why nature and hard things might be the most important parenting tools we have. If you’re an entrepreneur, a parent, an outdoorsman, or all three — this one’s for you. Pull it up on the drive or the trail. Timestamp Chapters 0:00 — Intro & Sponsor: OnX Hunt 1:45 — Sponsor: Bridger Watch 3:00 — Welcome + Who Is Logan Chierotti? 4:30 — Balancing entrepreneurship and being present for your kids 7:00 — Physician’s Choice: 30,000 foot overview — $300M bootstrapped probiotic empire 9:00 — The mugshot removal hustle: Logan’s wild first online business 13:00 — Why business plans almost never survive contact with reality 15:30 — How Physician’s Choice was born: probiotics, a failed energy mint company, and a nagging wife 19:00 — Losing everything: the $1M first-year loss and lying on the floor ready to file bankruptcy 22:00 — How you survive: don’t quit, hire smart people, and get your head around the numbers 25:00 — The all-in pivot: cutting every other product to go deep on probiotics 28:30 — How to pick a category: find what’s working and do it better (the Metamucil / Grüns framework) 31:30 — Hardest lessons learned: stress, lawsuits, key employees quitting, and not taking it home 33:30 — Founder vs. CEO: why Logan will never hire an outside CEO again 35:30 — Balancing family, skiing with kids, and life outside the office 37:00 — Raising kids right: manufacturing adversity, camping, hard things, and the bidet incident 38:15 — Final advice: slow down, you have more time than you think 39:00 — Outro Episode Sponsors OnX Hunt If you’re hunting out west and you’re not running OnX, I genuinely don’t know what you’re doing. This isn’t a plug just because they write a check — I use this thing every single day. Land ownership, public/private boundaries, terrain analysis, offline maps, trip planning — it’s the full suite. The confidence it gives you knowing you’re in the right spot, you’re legal, and you can find your way back to the truck? That alone is worth it. Become an Elite Member today and save 20% with code TRO. Download the app or sign up at onxmaps.com Coupon Code: TRO — 20% off Elite Membership Bridger Watch Full disclosure — this one’s mine. I built it, our whole team built it, and we built it because every watch on the market was at best “usable” for hunters. That wasn’t good enough. Bridger Watch is a full-feature smartwatch built for the hunting lifestyle — not just the hunt. It does your training metrics, mapping, texts, all of it — and it does it with an insane battery life that actually holds up in the backcountry. No compromise. No fluff. Just a tool built by hunters, for hunters. Check it out at bridgerwatch.com — use code TRO at checkout. 3 Key Takeaways 1. Going all-in on one thing is a competitive advantage, not a limitation. Logan turned a flatlining supplement company into the world’s number one probiotic brand by doing something counterintuitive: he cut products that were making money to go deeper on one category. Most entrepreneurs spread themselves thin chasing every opportunity. The real unlock is picking the thing you can be truly elite at and pouring everything into it. Saying no to money today to dominate tomorrow is one of the hardest and most important decisions a founder can make. 2. You don’t need to invent something new — you need to do something existing much better. Logan’s framework for picking a business or a category isn’t about creating blue oceans — it’s about finding something that’s clearly working (proven demand, clear leader) and identifying the one thing that can be improved. Metamucil is doing $400M in fiber and their product is outdated junk. That’s not a threat — that’s an invitation. The best businesses often aren’t revolutionary ideas; they’re relentless improvements on proven ones. 3. You have more time than you think — stop the rush and be present. Both Logan and Cody landed on the same insight from different angles: the frantic urgency that drives early entrepreneurs often costs them the things that matter most — time with their kids, their health, their relationships. Logan’s parting advice says it all: your brain will work until you’re 70, there’s always more time to make money, but you can’t get time back. Whether it’s slowing down on the hustle or getting out in the mountains with your kids — presence is the play.
Transcribe →From Doing to Being: Why ‘I Am’ Statements Changed My Hunting
Apr 1501:14:43Tap to summarizeEP 678: Darin Hardy Level Seven High Terrain “You can’t half-ass walking on uneven ground—and that lesson translates to everything: relationships, fatherhood, business, life.” What’s up everyone! This week I’m sitting down with Darin Hardy, and man, this conversation goes places I didn’t expect. Darin is a former Marine Corps special operations guy who spent 20 years and 13 deployments in the military, and now he’s using horses, nature, and even AI to help executives and leaders transform their lives. Yeah, you heard that right—AI and horses. Stay with me here. This episode sits right at the intersection of ancient wisdom and cutting-edge technology. Darin breaks down how he’s using emotionally intelligent AI to help distill his thoughts and experiences in the field, then using horses as living mirrors to reflect back what people need to see about themselves. It’s wild, it’s different, and it’s honestly one of the most unique approaches to coaching I’ve ever heard. We dive deep into what Darin calls “window moments”—those rare experiences in nature where you feel like you’re between worlds. He shares two incredibly powerful stories: one about syncing with a horse at 16 years old and losing all sense of where he ended and the horse began, and another about a forked-horn mule deer that walked within arm’s reach and taught him he had permission to forge his own path. These aren’t just cool hunting stories—they’re formative moments that shaped how he shows up in the world. But this isn’t all woo-woo spiritual stuff. Darin gets tactical too. He talks about hitting the wall on day five of an elk hunt, using “I am” statements to shift from doing to being, and how those three words helped him arrow a bull when he was ready to quit. We also get into the difference between power over versus partner with, why he cried in a pasture when three horses wouldn’t let him catch them, and what that taught him about 20 years of narratives he’d been carrying. One of my favorite parts of this conversation is when Darin talks about being “porous”—how life doesn’t just happen to you or for you, but through you. And how as outdoorsmen, we’re naturally land-informed and nature-informed, which gives us this unique lens to filter everything else in life. It’s the same reason I believe elk hunting teaches you more about business and life than most MBA programs ever could. If you’re someone who’s looking for transformation, willing to get uncomfortable, and open to the idea that horses and mountains might teach you more about yourself than any boardroom ever will, this episode is for you. Darin’s work is for people who refuse to live small lives—people who want authentic experiences, not hand-fed success. https://www.level7highperformance.com/retreats?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss Sponsors Tricer – I run Tricer gear for a reason. One of my favorite products is the RP Bipod—a legit hunting bipod with all the high-end features you’d expect. At 10.5 ounces, it’s lightweight enough for any hunt. Comes with long legs, short legs, works on Picatinny or Arca. For $350, it’s a no-brainer. I’ve shot a ton of critters off mine. Head to tricer.com and use code TRO to save 10%. OnX Hunt – The new weather feature is a game-changer. Instead of checking weather for the nearest town, you can tap anywhere on the mountain and get hyperlocal weather data that takes topography into account. See wind variations across different parts of your hunting area. Become an Elite member at onxmaps.com and use code TRO to save 20%. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro: Ancient tech meets AI 05:15 – Darin’s military background: 20 years, 13 deployments 11:30 – From infantry to special operations 16:45 – Transitioning out and the two things he promised himself 22:20 – How passion becomes your job (whether you want it to or not) 28:40 – Being “porous” – life flowing through you, not just to you 34:15 – The horse window moment at 16: losing boundaries 40:30 – The mule deer at arm’s reach: permission to forge your own path 46:50 – Hong Kong beach: glowing plankton and Disney magic 52:10 – Flow state in the red zone: from doing to being 58:35 – Using AI to distill “I am” statements 1:03:20 – Day five of the Idaho hunt: hitting the wall 1:08:45 – Three horses that wouldn’t let him catch them 1:12:30 – Power over vs. partner with 1:16:00 – Level Seven High Terrain and authentic experiences 1:20:15 – Cow elk hunts as transformation: range day to butchering Three Key Takeaways Shift From Doing to Being – Darin uses AI-assisted coaching to help people create “I am” statements instead of “I do” goals. When he was exhausted on day five of an elk hunt, ready to quit, he repeated “I’m resilient, I’m flexible” as he climbed—pointing himself back to a state of being rather than performance. Ten minutes later, he arrowed a bull at 20 yards. The power isn’t in what you do, it’s in who you are. Those qualities remain true regardless of whether you punch your tag or eat it. Horses and Nature as Mirrors – Horses don’t lie. When Darin returned to Montana after 20 years in the military with this narrative of “this is my pot of gold,” three well-trained horses wouldn’t let him within 50 feet. He broke down crying in knee-high grass because they were reflecting back his energy—he’d come with an agenda, never asking what the horses’ agenda was. The next day, he left the halter at the gate, walked into the pasture with just a brush, and said “I’m here with fresh, if anyone wants something, come get it.” Within 10 minutes, all three horses were standing around him. Power over vs. partner with—that’s the lesson. Give Yourself Permission to Feel Something Different – Transformation isn’t about knowing what to do differently. It’s about giving yourself permission to feel something different. When you’re willing to accept the pain of change more than the pain of staying the same, you’re ready. Darin’s “window moments” in nature—with horses, with deer, with glowing plankton on a Hong Kong beach—gave him permission to see himself differently. You can’t half-ass walk...
Transcribe →